On February 15, 2007 Kevin and Clara, Bostonians from the South End, hoped to hit the road on their motorcycles aspiring to visit over 40 countries during the course of the remainder of the year...However, due to unforeseen difficulties in New Orleans, our actual departure date was March 1, 2007.

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Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Hanging in Turkey

Last Saturday at 9:05 a.m. the alarm sirens went off around Turkey, everyone stopped in place for about 3 minutes of silence to commemorate the passing of Ataturk the father of the country who died in 1937. (if you look closely at the picture you will see that no one is moving)

So, what is it like to spend a month in 98 percent Muslim country?

Let's just say I wouldn't want Clara and I to have to pass a drug test due to the possible contact highs from some of the parties we've gone to. Of course, neither one of us does drugs, let alone try it and 'not inhale' like our great President Clinton did when he was in Europe!

I went out with the boys on Saturday night after a 6 hour game of Risk ended with 3 players being eliminated and Clara and I controlling the whole world except Thailand and Australia. What was funny was how each of the players gravitated towards their home base. The Frenchman tried to control Europe, Clara took South America, I took North America, the Turk took the Middle East. The two fastest losers were the Turkish woman spreading herself thin in Asia and Africa and the British guy losing from his power base in South Africa. Colonialism will never work!

We went out to the first club about 2 a.m. where our friends knew the owner, who had just renovated an historic church into a multi-functional techno dance club, extremely cool and hip. After hanging for a couple hours there we went to one of the coolest clubs in Istanbul, called Ghetto, where there was a private going away party for a local DJ who was leaving shortly to do his military service in the Turkish Army. Unfortuneately for Clara, when this party broke up about 5 a.m. our host Gilles invited everyone back to his place to continue the party until Dawn.

So yes, all the stereotypes about the Islamic world being full of smokers and drinkers, going out, dancing and partying to all hours of the night, being incredibly friendly, open to people of diverse countries and backgrounds, with no preconceived attitude are true.

Let's make sure we keep those types out of America!!

I'm sure we are just hanging by a string, ready to be murdered by some Islamo-fascists any second now.

The truth is that we will probably die driving in Istanbul traffic. Nearly every motorcyclist I know here has been in an accident of one sort or another. Our host Gilles got hit by a car 3 days ago while driving his friend Hakkan, our German friend riding around the world got into his first accident in 7 years on the streets here, Clara got hit by a Taxi. It is totally crazy. Imagine Boston streets, winding around all over the place, add 7 major hills, no drivers training, and 66 times more people and you start to get the idea.

No wonder everyone has "evil eye" protectors on their motorcycles to ward off the bad spirits.